"I think with the storytelling at its core, you have to connect with the characters that you're gonna be living with, right? And if we had four hours to connect with Anakin, it's hard. Because first of all, he goes on this downward spiral from good to the worst villain in the galaxy in the course of like two hours. And prior to that, a lot of people said he's whiny and it just wasn't enough time to take a guy from teenage angst into the worst villain. We needed more time and I think George and Dave understood that and understood that we gotta connect with the character more."
— Matt Lanter on Anakin Skywalker's characterization
Hated characters who've subsequently been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap by The Clone Wars.
A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. Examples shouldn't be added for 9 months. This is measured from the point when the character was introduced or became hated.
- Anakin Skywalker was originally widely derided by fans in the Prequel Trilogy as a whiny and selfish brat who failed to mesh with the Original Trilogy's heroic description of him. His Protagonist Journey to Villain was seen as an unsatisfying explanation overly reliant on his poorly done romance, and ruining the image of Darth Vader. The Clone Wars redeems Anakin Skywalker by portraying him with stronger characterization as a likable, heroic, and sympathetic Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic with a decreased tendency for Wangst. The Clone Wars also presents Anakin willing to do anything for his noble goals, with significant reasons to distrust the Jedi Order, which retroactively makes his inevitable fall to the Dark Side more believable than what was presented in the Prequel Trilogy. Matt Lanter's performance as Anakin having better dialogue than Hayden Christensen did in the prequels helps tremendously as well.
- The Clone Wars' portrayal of Anakin has also caused many to positively reevaluate the way he is in Prequel Trilogy, allowing them to see things from Anakin's perspectives. Similarly, due to Anakin's Sequel Trilogy Expy, Kylo Ren, becoming similarly contentious (again, save for his acting) from the lack of consistent script direction, some fans highlight how better planned and written Anakin's story was in retrospect.
- Similar to the above, several fans now recognize Hayden Christensen's underwhelming work as Anakin to have stemmed from external restrictions by the prequels' scripting, with his return in spinoffs receiving wide anticipation and praise.
- Ahsoka Tano is one of the poster children for this. She began with having levels of hatred that were similar to those of Jar Jar Binks as a result of being mostly perceived as a Creator's Pet, Spotlight-Stealing Squad, and Bratty Half-Pint who was just there to appeal to the younger audiences. However, her overall reception became more positive by the time of the second season after being pulled back from appearing in nearly every episode (which prevented her from being one of the more talkative characters in The Clone Wars) and having several well regarded episodes that highlighted her own personal growth. The emotional response to Ahsoka's decision to leave her master and the Jedi Order has made it safe to say that her "Scrappy" status has been revoked as Ahsoka is now considered a major fan favorite character.
- Ahsoka's popularity has also developed over the years. The franchise under Disney has seen a push towards more female leads, but the reception to said characters have been divisive. Thanks to The Clone Wars' popularity over time, Ahsoka is heralded as one of the best female characters in the Star Wars franchise (and canon as a whole). The announcement of her appearing in live action in the second season of The Mandalorian was met with essentially universal excitement among fans.
- It's been said that Ahsoka's rescuing was actually a plan by Dave Filoni from the start. He knew that fans would hate a brand-new character mingling with establishing characters, thus set her up intentionally as the head-strong, energetic and know-it-all Padawan she first emerged as. Through those specific episodes dedicated to her, Ahsoka grew as a character and ultimately won over her detractors.
- Padmé Amidala was initially unpopular for undergoing a Badass Decay throughout the Prequel Trilogy due to her very polarizing romance plot with Anakin in addition to being his motivation to turn to the Dark Side, but The Clone Wars retroactively redeems Padmé through presenting her with a better characterization and fleshed out role as a well-meaning politician in the Galactic Senate, portraying her relationship with Anakin as being more natural and romantic, and featuring her badassery when push comes to shove. The fact that Catherine Taber's performance as Padmé is much less wooden than Natalie Portman's own and has better dialogue helps enormously.
- Jar Jar Binks of all people was successfully rescued from the scrappy heap in The Clone Wars after the infamously negative reception he had back in The Phantom Menace (yeah, you read that correctly, make no mistake). The series did so by emphasizing his friendliness as being his greatest strength to the point of being The Beast Master (as he once called upon a Kwazel Maw for help) in addition to playing down his clumsy side in order to make sure that it always ended up helping things more than hurting things, along with the fact that he gets to show that under his overly friendly and clumsy nature is indeed a smart guy who takes his duties seriously. His cowardly nature is also almost nowhere to be seen, even to the point of walking alone into a nest of pirates to fulfill his role as a representative of the Republic. His most highly regarded episodes are those where he's paired up with another character to act as a counterpart to his wackiness (such as C-3PO, Bail Organa, and Mace Windu). While there is still some vitriol directed towards him for the reputation he has in the films, the reception to him in the series is significantly less caustic, making him more of a Base-Breaking Character than the near-universally loathed Scrappy that he was originally. Ahmed Best coming out to reveal the depression and struggles he's experienced as a result of the critical & fan backlash also persuaded many to change their minds on Jar Jar Binks, or at the very least that their dislike of the character had gone too far. His rescue went so far that, while maintaining his status as The Fool, he managed to do enough good and achieve enough popularity that a great deal of Fanon has determined he's Force Sensitive, if a little dim. He still paints the line on racist caricature...
- In The Phantom Menace, Watto the Toydarian was basically the worst possible antisemitic stereotype, complete with a giant hooked nose. The Clone Wars gives the Toydarians as a whole a few episodes to showcase their sympathetic side, with the Toydarian king making it a point to say "The Toydarian people have an obligation to be compassionate", and ultimately siding with the Republic, making Watto an outlier rather than the norm.
